21st Faith

31
Feiern,
by Nico Limo.
“In this piece I seek out to explore the inter-sectional symbolism between religion
and club culture, two topics who at first sight seem to reject each other. Despite their
differences there are undeniable similarities between the two. The ritual of 3 is constantly
reoccurring, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, communion smoke the blood of Christ,
a fag a tipple and a bit of medicine.
I was inspired by going out in Berlin and how people quickly treat it like a spiritual
experience. I’ve always told people going out in London is more intense than Berlin
and I’m constantly greeted by responses telling me surely that can’t be right. As clubs
close early in London people have a shorter time to go out, they chug 5 beers in an hour
and its a competition to see who can get the most fucked up. In Berlin however, clubs
and bars almost never close. People are more about stamina and seeing who can last the
longest. When you’re spending this much time in a space, doing a huge amount of drugs,
it definately brings you to a different mind frame both physically and spiritually.
Many people become sober or straight edge because of this.“
21st Faith: Tell us about you and your
practice.
Nico: I am a Graphic Designer according
to a couple of pieces of paper the
university has given me but see myself as
an obsessive constant maker. I grew up
wanting to be an “Artist” but thought job
wise Graphic Design would give me more
opportunity. So far it kinda seems like I’ve
been getting way more recognition as an
image maker (I dislike the term artist) than
a Graphic Designer. I also design clothing!
What drew you to take part in 21st Faith?
How is faith important to you and your
practice?
Rebecca’s a friend of a couple of people
I know. They insisted I contact her and I was
already a huge fan of her project before.
I’ve grown up in Methodist schools all from
the age of 3 - 16, the traditional Christian
faith left an odd impression on me because
my family was never Christian to begin
with! They’re Buddhists and growing up
I felt like an outsider. 21st Faith appealed
to me because they explored faith in a way
modern contemporary way which I could
relate/understand. Faith is important to
me and my practice because as an early
graduate I am usually doing a lot of work
for little or no money and because of this
it is important to actually believe in
your work and yourself.
What role do you think faith will play in
the 21st century?
I hope people will recognise organised
religion is extremely toxic especially since
any kind of faith is looking at provoking
thought. Organised religion really doesn’t
promote that. I think we can all agree
the world is almost coming to an end
and hopefully people will return to pure
types of faith. Faith not looking to praise
an entity / have idols / gods but rather faith
in the human spirit.
Nico: nicolimo.com, excitementdesigner@gmail.com, @nico.limo 103